GEOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES. 379 



When Capt. Inglefield left Beechy Island last year, he brought 

 home the intelligence that Sir E. Belcher had gone up Wellington 

 Channel, and had been absent three weeks. It now appears that he 

 reached Cape Beecher to the north-east, near which, in lat. 76 52' 

 and long. 97W., a locality was found for winter quarters. Appre- 

 hensive that the open season was fast approaching to a close, prepara- 

 tions were made for boat and sledge explorations to the northward : 

 and these were commenced on the 23d of August. On the 25th, 

 when rounding a point where the coast suddenly turns to the east- 

 ward, the remains of several well-built Esquimaux houses were dis- 

 covered. " They were," says Sir E. Belcher, " not simply circles of 

 small stones, but two lines of well laid wall in excavated ground, filled 

 in between by about two feet of fine gravel, well paved, and withal 

 presenting the appearance of great care more, indeed, than I ani 

 willing to attribute to the rude inhabitants or migratory Esquimaux. 

 Bones of deer, wolves, seal, &c., numerous. Coal found." There is 

 no mention of any search having been made for a record, though in 

 all probability this was not neglected ; yet the absence of any cairn 

 would seem to render it unlikely that a document existed. It will be 

 observed that Sir E. Belcher does not hazard an opinion, as to 

 whether these huts were built by Franklin's party or not ; but if 

 not by Esquimaux, it would be difficult to arrive at any other conclu- 

 sion. 



The explorations of Sir Edward and his officers led to the discov- 

 ery of various lands, to the most extensive of which the name of 

 North Cornwall was given, and of several islands washed by a sea 

 open to the north, which, as we have stated, Sir E. Belcher regards as 

 the Polar basin. Sir Edward gave the name of Victoria Archipelago 

 to a group of islands in 78 10' N. lat. ; and the easternmost, forming 

 the channel to Jones's Strait, which communicates with the Polar sea, 

 he named " North Kent." It is important to add, that as early as the 

 20th of May, he found the sea open in the latitude of Jones's Strait. 

 His words are " Polar sea as far as the eye could range." He also 

 states that the tides were most apparent, setting from east to west. 



Throughout the very interesting search, not a particle of drift- 

 wood was noticed since quitting the Esquimaux huts, and not a trace 

 of human beings. Animal life seems also to fail in this district. " If 

 our unfortunate countrymen," says Sir Edward Belcher, " have taken 

 the floe and drifted with it, their case is hopeless. If we may judge 

 from the aspect of the floes, where they had come into collision, or 

 where they piled themselves in layers over forty feet on the north- 

 western extremities of the islands, the feeling was disheartening." 



In regard to the final results of the various expeditions, the editor 

 of the London Athenaeum remarks : It is of course quite possible 

 that intelligence may yet arrive, from Sir E. Belcher or Capt. Kellett, 

 announcing either the discovery of our long-lost countrymen, or that 

 of further tracks of their route and their possible whereabout. We 

 have yet to learn the result of the explorations of Capt. Kellett's offi- 

 cers ; and we must not forget, that Capt. Collinson, who entered the 



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